Since the start of the pandemic, a moratorium on federal student loan repayments has been extended eight times, most recently as a part of President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program  with the extension now ending on December 31st.   During the summer, President Biden announced his plan to forgive as much as $20,000 of federal student loan debt for borrowers who received Pell Grants and up to $10,000 for federal student loan borrowers who did not receive Pell Grants subject to income limits and now the official website where you can apply for student loan debt relief is up and available.  Here is the link to the only website where you can apply for student loan forgiveness.  Any other website is a scam.  https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/debt-relief-info

Presently the only place to apply is online at the website indicated above.  A paper application will be made available sometime later.

TIPS

There is no cost to apply for student loan forgiveness so anyone contacting you or any site you may go to that asks for a fee is a scam.  In addition, there are no short cuts and anyone who tells you that they can guarantee approval of your application or process your application more quickly is a scammer.

Many of us who are wary of scams are skeptical about sites that ask for personal information such as your Social Security number, however, the real website for applying for debt relief does require you to provide your name, date of birth, Social Security number, phone number and address.  However the official application does not require your FSA ID, bank account or credit card information.  Some applicants will have to verify their income in the future but not yet.

After you apply, you may be contacted by email by the Department of Education and asked to upload documents to verify your income or to update your application.  The only legitimate email addresses asking for this information will come from noreply@studentaid.gov, noreply@debtrelief.studentaid.gov or ed.gov@public.govdeliverycom.  If you do receive such an email, confirm the email address of the sender carefully because scammers may make slight changes in those real addresses to trick you into thinking their scam phishing emails are legitimate.

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